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Where did you get the camo straps with loops!? And how long would you recommend for each?

I use the same straps. The woodland green polyester camo straps can be bought here.www.owfinc.com/Hardware/Shardware/webbing.asp
They will not sew the loops for you. A popular length around here and what I use
is about 12' of webbing per side. But that is done with another suspension method.

There has been a question that I have been meaning to raise and it keeps slipping my mind. It concerns the clove hitch. It is generally accepted that knots reduce the breaking strength of a rope by roughly 1/2 because they twist and distort the fibers in the rope, making the forces on the rope uneven. Knots can also cause the fibers of the rope to cut into each other.

When I started fooling around with the clove hitch in the SLS and I noticed that the clove hitch (CH) is more of the line wrapping around an object instead of being tied like a standard knot, for example, a bowline knot. It doesn't kink the line as bad. It looked very much like the configuration of the CH would lend itself to distributing the forces on the rope more evenly.

Why do I care? The CH is the only real "knot" in the section of the suspension that keeps your bum from smacking the cold, hard ground. Assuming that the CH does a better job of distributing the forces, that would mean that instead of your suspension's breaking strength being reduced by 1/2 with a normal knot, you may retain more of the ropes original strength.

Any one care to share their thoughts on this subject?

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." -Terry Pratchett

You're right about the clove hitch being less damaging to rope than many other knots, at least in many of it's applications. Some of that advantage can be lost, however, if the lead puts a sharp bend in the rope. The construction of the rope itself also affects the amount of damage from bends. Constructions where all of the fibers spiral are less subject to damage because a fiber goes only a short distance on the outside of a curve before passing to the inside of the curve. Tight curves offer less opportunity for such compensation than more gentle curves.

As I recall, The Ashley Book of Knots has some good information on this topic but I can't check because my son made off with my copy a decade or two ago.

In the case of hammock suspensions, one way to minimize damage is to take up much of the strain with friction between the line and the anchor. For example, a suspension line that first wraps around a large diameter anchor, such as a tree, for several turns and then ends with a clove hitch will suffer less damage than an arrangement where the entire load is taken by a knot. But it's more of a nuisance.

you can probably find a chart online somewhere where there is a listing of a bunch of knots and hitches and the % that they weaken the line, clove hitch is probably on there. i looked at it long ago, but don't remember. i'd say the clove definately isn't as bad as some knots, it is bending around the biner, which def isn't as small a dia as the line itself.

according to one source (wikipedia I think) the clove hitch has a tendency to slip if subject to fluctuating loads. It is an excellent knot for static veritcal hanging where the weight is constant and directly vertical. The buntline hitch is a variation of the clove hitch and it seems to be plenty stable. I have never had a clove hitch slip on me but I use it pretty much only for static applications.

I may be slow... But I sure am gimpy.

"Bless you child, when you set out to thread a needle don't hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a man always does t'other way."
Mrs. Loftus to Huck Finn